CPR: A Quick Study on Prayer
When I worked at a summer camp a few years ago, we had a midweek service that would focus all the staff and campers on prayer. I decided to make my own adaption, and I hope you take the time to use this simple study as a way to pray with your family this week!
Confession
David is my favorite Bible character besides Jesus (of course). I love his story, how God used him, and how he had such a tender heart towards God’s teaching. God called David “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Sam. 13:14, Acts 13:22). If you read 1&2 Kings and 1&2 Chronicles, you read how the bad kings of Israel/Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord in the ways of their fathers, but the good kings did what was right in the eyes of God in the ways of David their father. David wasn’t a perfect man by any means, but he loved God and strove to have a good relationship with Him. One of the ways we have a good relationship with God is through confessing sin. Remember what confession is? It is saying the same thing as God, that sin is wrong and God was right. David writes in Psalm 32:5…
I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
Sometimes the KJV is hard to understand, and I just really like how a different translation puts it…Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the LORD .” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone. Interlude. (NLT). David admitted to God all his sins, and God forgave him. God forgives us of the sins we consider big, and the sins we consider small. So just take a couple minutes alone with God, and confess any sin in your life, and be specific!
Praise
The last chapter of Psalm (150) is all about praise. It talks about where we should praise God, with what we should praise God, and how we should praise God. And the last verse, the final verse in the book of Psalms says…
Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.
After everything you read about in Psalm, all the good times and blessings, but also all the struggles, sins, and hard times, the whole book ends simply with “Praise ye the LORD”. Let praise of God be as common as breathing, which is something we can thank Him for as well! So now, I encourage you to do two things: first, tell someone today at least one thing you can thank God for, and second, pray right now and thank God for anything you can think of!
Request
There are so many things to be thankful for, we could never stop thanking God. But unfortunately for right now we don’t have all the time in the world. Sometimes I feel like by thanking Him first, I’m trying to get on God’s good side before asking Him for something. But that’s not how it works, God loves us so much and wants to help us! Psalm 121:1-2 says…
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.
When I worked at a camp a few summers ago, a couple of guys and I went to a lookout area up the street from the camp. It was so cool seeing the view of the different hills and mountains. As large and great as the mountains are, that is not where our help comes from. Our help comes from the same God that David received help from…the God who created the universe! And isn’t that who we would want help from? The one who created everything, even us? That is the God we can get help from, for whatever, we just need to ask Him! Finally, I encourage you to take some time today and pray with someone, asking them what they need help with this week, and also pray for what you need help with!